August 2024

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

Saying for the month: ‘Be still, and know that I am God’.  Psalm 46:10. (KJV).

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:  ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28).

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

‘Be still, and know that I am God’.  

This Psalm is one of fifty seven songs in the Psalter, which is arranged into five books. Two of these seem to have a special significance and are called ‘A song’.  This Saying comes from the second one of these which contains Psalms 42 to 72.  Several of these have as their main theme God’s deliverance and protection.  They may have been part of a Jerusalem cult expressing a faith in divine protection of the city.

This Psalm of eleven verses was written to be performed in worship and accompanied by clear instructions about how it should be performed.  This suggests that Psalm 46 was of enormous meaning when used.  It has three clear stanzas in NRSV, two ending with a refrain. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge’. Mainly composed in the third person, it describes the attributes of the Lord in the context perhaps of a recent war or offered to people facing a possible war.  There is a threefold structure which features ‘the shaking of the earth’, ‘the river’ and God as a ‘warrior’.  From the very beginning and throughout, the Lord is a ‘refuge and strength’ and the people’s ‘stronghold’.  In verse one, the line ‘a very present help in trouble’ may also be translated as ‘a well-proved help in trouble’. 

Then in verse ten something happens. In the second person, the Lord addresses the reader directly using the words of August’s Saying: ‘Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted … in the earth’.

God is telling his people Israel to ‘be still’, rest, cease striving.  It’s a moment to open their eyes to who God is.  It is a wake-up call with a promise: ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge’.

The Psalm is demonstrating that it is time to stop striving, to stop trying to do things on your own. God is saying that they have nothing to fear or worry about if they acknowledge who God is and what God can do.  If we are correct about the Psalm’s background, God is saying, ‘ “be still”, rest in me, for in the midst of conflict and turmoil I will deal with the situation, I will provide comfort in the chaos and peace in the midst of struggle’.

We take this Saying into our minds, allowing the saying to speak to us: ‘Be still, and know that I am God’.

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

The first silence ends with the words: Ever living God, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

‘Be still, and know that I am God’.

In the book How Good Do We Have To Be?, the Jewish Rabbi, Harold S. Kusher writes about the ‘missing piece’, about an incomplete circle; a missing piece.  His suggestion is that it is vital to take time to notice the beauty of the world, rather than keep up a frenetic pace so much so that its glories go unnoticed.

The encouragement of Psalm 46 to ‘Be still’, is God’s call to waiting.  The world around us does not always heed waiting.  We of course have a whole season of the Church’s Year.  Its first season – Advent – is a precious time of waiting.  Spiritual waiting has a sound biblical pedigree.  In another Psalm, Psalm 40, we hear the plaintive cry, ‘I waited patiently for the Lord’.  Isaiah offers more of a touch of urgency: ‘They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles’.

In more recent times, the American poet, Mary Oliver, speaks of this ‘empty time’. Prayerful waiting for her, is not uttering elaborate words but ‘a doorway into thanks and a silence in which another voice may speak’. For her there is positivity in the empty time.  Remember the words from our FCP prayer: ‘we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your Divine Fullness, our selves, our souls and bodies’.

Sometimes in the waiting we may feel that God’s apparent disappearance. Sometimes called the ‘dark night of the soul’, of it St John of the Cross wrote: ‘the dark night is an inflowing of God into the soul, a means whereby God instructs the soul with the perfection of love’.

Out of the darkness, the stillness, may come the first flutterings of rekindled belief. Waiting can be tough, listening sometimes has been called an ‘inexorable grind’.  There’s a need to be courageous, holding on in the midst of personal and community struggles.

Now we take this word into our hearts, as we allow it to speak in us, to let it touch us and let it work more deeply upon our lives.

A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

The second silence ends with the words: Ever living God, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.

Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world using our will.

‘Be still, and know that I am God’.

The Welsh poet, Ann Griffiths, urges us to lean on the foundational messages of the Bible.  From a Methodist background, she became, as she rested in God in practical stillness, moved and convinced of the powerfulness of the assurances of the Bible for her spiritual experience.  Her poem, ‘I Saw Him Standing’ declares:

It will be

Oh, such a daybreak, such bright morning,

when I shall wake to see him

as he is.

As we allow this Saying to speak through us, let its main theme of God’s deliverance and protection convince us to meet Him ‘in the waiting’ in the resting, which can both comfort and challenge.  Let it speak to us of God, exalted in the lives of people, situations and communities.  Let this Saying affirm our God as a strength, a refuge, a present reality in our lives and in the lives of others.

Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison and your family … “Be still, and know that I am God”’.

As we allow the word to speak through us we might direct it towards those people and situations where there is a loss of faith or absence of faith. Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: Ever living God, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

The Conclusion

Ever living God, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen

You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.